Core Resources
Resources, Facilities, and Equipment
The ORL is housed in the A. Alfred Taubman Biomedical Science Research Building on the campus of the UM Medical School as well as the North Campus Research Complex. The facilities and resources in the ORL make it one of the leading centers for musculoskeletal research in the nation.
Mechanical Testing
Biomechanics and motion capture facilities
MTS Model 810 Servohydraulic Uniaxial Testing System
Instron 8511 Servohydraulic Uniaxial Testing System
MTS Bionix Servo-Hydraulic Testing System
Instron 5500R servo-electric materials testing system
Bose Electroforce 3200 Test Instrument
Bose Electroforce 3300 AT Test Instrument (available for in vivo loading in the Vivarium)
3 Custom Fabricated Servo Hydraulic and Servo Mechanical Testing Frames
Specialized micro-material testing systems for static and fatigue evaluation
Hysitron TI 950 TriboIndenter fitted with bright light and fluorescence imaging capability
Design and Fabrication
Complete machine shop including two Bridgeport mills (one is CNC), two precision lathes, bandsaw, welding systems, and all other associate tooling, grinding, and machining supplies
Basic electronic instrumentation systems include amplifiers, oscilloscopes, power supplies, load cells, accelerometers, and necessary maintenance and fabrication facilities
Cell and Molecular Biology
Complete molecular biology support instrumentation for Northern, Western, Southern analysis, PCR, in situ hybridization and other support systems
Six CO2/water jacketed cell incubators
Cell culture and imaging facilities
Molecular biology equipment
Speedvac system
Fluorometer
Gel dryer with pump
Sorvall floor high speed centrifuge
Beckman ultracentrifuge
Five cell culture hoods
Three fluorescent-detection real time thermocyclers- a MJR Opticon Quantitative Thermocycler, Biorad iCycler, ABI 7600.
Multiple table top centrifuges for Eppendorf tubes
Two Sorvall Legend Table top centrifuge
Percellys Evolution system for DNA and RNA extraction
Three custom-built in vitro loading devices (Shear; Strain; Hydrostatic)
Leica inverted microscope
Imaging
Advanced microscopy and in vivo fluorescent imaging systems
Biomechanics and motion capture facilities
Cell culture and imaging facilities
X-ray and fluoroscopy equipment
HP Engineering Workstations (192 GB RAM; 8 CPUs; Intel Xeon 3.2 GHz; NVIDIA Graphics cards; 2TB hard drive; Linux virtual machine; Windows 7 (64-bit)) with WACOM digitizing tablet monitors and high-end PC systems for analytical and computational modeling, image analysis for data sets derived from micro/nano computed tomography systems, MRI scans and confocal or other microscopy instruments. All have various commerical and custom modeling and imaging software packages installed.
Two x-ray systems; one portable unit, and one custom designed, precision, multiple focal spot size system and tabletop film development unit
Two Faxitron microradiography systems
Stratec XCT 2000 L pQCT system
MX20 digital faxitron
Microscopy including two microscopes for epifluorescent, transmitted, and reflected light imaging (Zeiss Axiovert/Apatome; Nikon Eclipse microscope; Nikon and Bioquant image analysis software), three dissecting microscopes and supporting optics and camera systems
Photometrics high performance Evolve EMCCD camera for near-infrared imaging of fluorescent contrast agents under low-light conditions
LI-COR Pearl Impulse near-infrared fluorescence system for in vivo and ex vivo imaging of fluorescent contrast agents
NanoCT and MicroCT
Ex Vivo nano-CT imaging system available in the nano/micro-CT core within the ORL
Nano-CT: phoenix|x-ray nanotom-m, GE Sensing & Inspection Technologies, GmbH; Wunstorf, Germany. High resolution (0.5 micron voxel size) nano-computed tomography system (180 kV/15W; nanofocus X-ray tube; large object imaging (250mm height x 250mm diameter); tungsten and molybdenum targets for tailoring imaging to metals and biologicals; aluminum and copper filters to minimize beam hardening.
In Vivo Bruker/Skyscan 1176 High Resolution micro-CT imaging system
The SkyScan 1176 is a high performance in vivo micro-CT scanner for preclinical research. X-ray source is a sealed micro-focus X-ray tube 20-90kV, 25W. Fully distortion corrected 11Mp X-ray camera; 4000x2672pixels, 12bit, fiber-optically coupled to scintillator. Scanning volume up to 68mm diameter, 20mm single scan length, 200mm scannable length. Image field width up to 68 mm allows full body mouse and rat scanning and distal limb scanning for big animals, such as rabbits, at pixel sizes of 9, 18 and 35µm. Integrated physiological monitoring (breathing, movement detection, ECG), with 4D time-resolved microtomography
Histology
Microtomes include a Reichert-Jung Polycut microtome for decalcified or undecalcified saples, two Reichert-Jung rotary microtomes for decalcified specimens
Two Exact diamond band saws
Cryostats for frozen sections with special features for bone sections
Three slow speed diamond saws
One high speed grinding cutoff wheel
Two precision grinding and polishing machines (Buehler Automet 300)
Complete embedding and preparation equipment and supplies for paraffin, methacrylate, epoxy, and other resins for embedding of biologic specimens
Two automated tissue processor for plastic and paraffin embedding preparation (Leica ASP 300S)
For more information see: https://mimhc.med.umich.edu/cores/structure-composition-histology-core